oubtful,
and lastly by the timid, the clatter soon made the circuit of the tables.
Some were shocked, however, as the Colonel had feared they would be, at
the want of the customary invocation. Widow Leech, a kind of relation,
who had to be invited, and who came with her old, back-country-looking
string of gold beads round her neck, seemed to feel very serious about
it.

"If she'd ha' known that folks would begrutch cravin' a blessin' over
sech a heap o' provisions, she'd rather ha' staid t' home. It was a bad
sign, when folks was n't grateful for the baounties of Providence."

The elder Miss Spinney, to whom she made this remark, assented to it, at
the same time ogling a piece of frosted cake, which she presently
appropriated with great refinement of manner,--taking it between her
thumb and forefinger, keeping the others well spread and the little
finger in extreme divergence, with a graceful undulation of the neck, and
a queer little sound in her throat, as of an M that wanted to get out and
perished in the attempt.

The tables now presented an animated spectacle. Young fellows of the
more dashing sort, with high stand-up collars and voluminous bows to
their neckerchiefs, distinguished themselves by cutting up fowls and
offering portions thereof to the buxom girls these knowing ones had
commonly selected.

"A bit of the wing, Roxy, or of the--under limb?"

The first laugh broke out at this, but it was premature, a sporadic
laugh, as Dr. Kittredge would have said, which did not become epidemic.
People were very solemn as yet, many of them being new to such splendid
scenes, and crushed, as it were, in the presence of so much crockery and
so many silver spoons, and such a variety of unusual viands and
beverages. When the laugh rose around Roxy and her saucy beau, several
looked in that direction with an anxious expression, as if something had
happened, a lady fainted, for instance, or a couple of lively fellows
come to high words.

"Young folks will be young folks," said Deacon Soper. "No harm done.
Least said soonest mended."

"Have some of these shell-oysters?" said the Colonel to Mrs. Trecothick.

A delicate emphasis on the word shell implied that the Colonel knew what
was what. To the New England inland native, beyond the reach of the east
winds, the oyster unconditioned, the oyster absolute, without a
qualifying adjective, is the pickled oyster. Mrs. Trecothick, who knew
very well that an oyster lon